Monday's letters: Well stated

Published: Monday, February 3, 2014 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, January 31, 2014 at 3:46 p.m.

To the editor: I want to compliment Ron Davis on a well-constructed and written guest column, “Beware of another economic dictatorship.” It’s a pleasure to read a column that presents the relevant facts and then ties them up with a well-considered opinion. I wholeheartedly agree with his reasoning and conclusions.

It would be interesting to understand the characteristics of those who do actually create the preponderance of jobs in the U.S. I suspect that they are in the $100,000-$1 million category, the very group that has been shrinking relative to other countries.

Also, I have never met anyone who advocated policies designed to make the federal government less efficient, welfare programs more dependency-creating, a more complex tax code or unnecessary regulation. I believe such phenomena are unintended consequences of efforts to maintain or improve the lot of a citizenry adversely affected by a post-industrial economy and globalization.

That does not excuse them from reform, but if true, such a perspective might facilitate efforts to analyze and correct them.

John Moore

Hendersonville

Tillis supporter

To the editor: I want to thank Gary Gilchrist for his letter of Jan. 26 bringing to our attention some of the outstanding legislation Thom Tillis has achieved in getting passed. Yes, we do need someone to clean up Barack Obama’s mess, and you have just given me reason to vote for Thom Tillis!

Louise Peterson

Tuxedo

Judgmentalism

To the editor: The Jan. 25 letter from Raymond C. Dyer condemning the “liberal” media for its responses to Phil Robertson’s remarks about homosexuals refers to biblical verses designed to flatten those who might think differently.

According to D.A. Carson, author of “Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World,” “judgmentalism is a ‘sinfully critical spirit, a condemning attitude.’ ”

It’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong: it’s about applying the Gospel to our sinfully critical spirits and condemning attitudes.

“Whatever our views may be on disputed issues … we can be guilty of judgmentalism. Jesus died for that sin.”

Just to correct a misapprehension, the redneck TV roles played by the Robertsons are no indication of their actual lifestyle. They are a wealthy family with Ivy League connections and a penchant for acting. The beards came into being when the production was being planned, though Robertson’s looks pretty ancient and may predate the show.

Winifred Bainbridge

Hendersonville

Addressing poverty

To the editor: “Our poor are faring better than many.” So says columnist Ron Kauffman. Better than many in South Africa, there is no doubt. After all, he says, “America’s poor may have a car, a subsidized home, heat, TV, a cellphone, food stamps and access to medical care,” a tea party view that matches that of the Heritage Foundation and Civitas Institute.

Nothing in his column suggests he actually believes that “America and Henderson County absolutely need to do better in dealing with our poor,” although he says it. That view is more consistent with the Moral Monday movement.

If Mr. Kauffman has a real interest in poverty in America, he would do well to research that subject. Here, for example, we had 300 homeless children enrolled in our county public school system in August. He would do well to read Gene Nichol’s 2013 yearlong series in Raleigh’s News and Observer that highlighted poverty’s persistent and varying grip on North Carolina.

I encourage Mr. Kauffman to consider Northern Europe for his next trip abroad so that he may return and provide us with his view on the economic and moral value differences between us and it on how to treat the least among us.

Harold Hellickson

Hendersonville

No big deal

To the editor: Mr. David Graham indicated in a recent letter that the Times-News appears to be going to “regional” or becoming the “all-South Times.” This is not a big deal. Is The New York Times just about New York City?

Not everyone can be as perfect as he. As the old saying goes, “he who has never made a boo-boo can cast the first stone.”

Melvin Taylor

Hendersonville

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